As a counselor or a sponsor or even as a friend it hasn’t been unusual to have people discuss issues that represented an overwhelming reality of their circumstances. These are secrets that they had kept hidden from everyone, even themselves, and opening up represented a first step towards facing the demons that had controlled their lives. The moment when a person reaches out, hoping to be accepted, scars and all. That moment when they are able to talk openly about their experiences, thoughts and feelings with another human being.
The issues vary but there is always a core theme to the problem. Somewhere, deep inside the person is a little voice that says, “If you only knew how sick I really am you wouldn’t love me.” There is that fear of having done something so wrong or of being so flawed as a person that no one would ever love them. That fear is seldom voiced and many aren’t even aware it exists. But that fear is what keeps them from becoming the kind of person they’ve always wanted to be.
For those struggling with deep secrets I’ve always thought it best to start off with the small ones first. For whatever reason, it seems that in sharing our small secrets all the power taken from the large ones. When we finally open up we find it is nowhere near as scary as we thought it would be. In sharing those small ones we find out we are loved. In sharing those small ones we find out that our demons aren’t as unique as we once thought. So when we finally get to the big issues that have so thoroughly controlled our lives we discover we’re more than ready to change.
John
The issues vary but there is always a core theme to the problem. Somewhere, deep inside the person is a little voice that says, “If you only knew how sick I really am you wouldn’t love me.” There is that fear of having done something so wrong or of being so flawed as a person that no one would ever love them. That fear is seldom voiced and many aren’t even aware it exists. But that fear is what keeps them from becoming the kind of person they’ve always wanted to be.
For those struggling with deep secrets I’ve always thought it best to start off with the small ones first. For whatever reason, it seems that in sharing our small secrets all the power taken from the large ones. When we finally open up we find it is nowhere near as scary as we thought it would be. In sharing those small ones we find out we are loved. In sharing those small ones we find out that our demons aren’t as unique as we once thought. So when we finally get to the big issues that have so thoroughly controlled our lives we discover we’re more than ready to change.
John
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